Does ebay charge more with the more money you make?

[martinbedard2099]

I'm asking if the more money I make in a mount, the more ebay will take money from?

I read money taken depends on the type of item and all...

But I wanted to see if after a certain gain, they start to take higher percentage?

Let's pretend I sell a 100$ video game. Will the amount I pay to ebay be the same in hypothetical scenario 1 and 2:

Scenario 1: First item I ever sale, 0 gain ever made on ebay.

Scenario 2: Lucky month, I already have 200 000$ made.

I don't care how much ebay would make of the 100$ game, I only care to know if the amount x they will take is the same in both case?

[reallynicestamps]

EBay (and Paypal )charge a mixture of Flat Rates and percentages up to a maximum.

With eBay, each listing costs 35c Flat Rate, but there are a lot of promotions so in effect without a Store subscription, you can list up to 200 items free of charge. Then on listing #201 you will be charged 35c.

This is non-refundable.

There are a few other charges that are non-refundable, the most common one that newbies choose being a Reserve on an Auction.

Even if the Reserve is not met and the Auction does not have a winner, the seller will be charged the Reserve fee.*

Most of those paid options are useless.

Then when you sell your item, you will be charged a Final Value Fee. Usually this is 10% although there are some variations in that.

And you will be charged 10% of your shipping charge**.

This will be on your monthly invoice.

Then when your customer pays you, Paypal will charge you 30c per transaction which again, is non-refundable, plus between ***2.9% and 3.9% of the ENTIRE ****payment.

This is taken from the customer's payment before you see it in your PP account.

This is vastly over simplified.

But if you make one $100 sale in a month and charge $10 shipping to a customer in Ontario, you can expect to pay $10FVF plus $1 Shipping FVF plus 30c plus $3.19 equals $14.49 in fees.

If you made one $100,000 sale in a month with $100 shipping, you would not pay $12910.59 but much less because there are limits on some of those charges. But if you made 100 sales of $1000 each plus $100 shipping on each, you would pay more than $12910.59 .

But that is in the realm of fantasy, so let it go. Take the $85,000 plus you made, laughing all the way to the bank.

TL/DR:  It's complicated.

Look at the site map to find a description of Fees.

*EBay hates Reserves almost as much as auction bidders, who tend to backbutton away from auctions with Reserves.

** Yes, it's legal. There is a whole history about why eBay does this.

*** 2.9% is for domestic customers. 3.9% is for overseas customers.

**** Including the US 'internet sales tax'. Yes, it's legal. Every merchant you ever paid with a credit card pays a fee to the card company on the sales tax for your purchase.

[martinbedard2099]

Thx a lot for the answer!

This is indeed all complicated.

However, what I meant about the 2 case, is if the amount they take on my sales are related to the amount of money I made so far (ignoring the quantity of listing/sales amount), only looking at money made.

The reason is because I'm wondering if I should wait months between sale to reduce my money made per month/year?

[esclyons · Accepted solution]

the money they take has nothing to do with what you have sold before..

Fees are are based on the category you sell in..  So if your fees, are 10% plus 2.9%, then you will lose 12.9% of whatever price you get from the item you sell..

[ypdc_dennis]

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@martinbedard2099 wrote:
... I wanted to see if after a certain gain, they start to take higher percentage?

The sale percentage is based the value of the item sold (including shipping). 

How much other stuff you sell in a month does not increase that selling fee.

However, if you sell more than $30000 over 12 months, Revenue Canada will want you to register for GST/HST sales tax collection.

-..-

[reallynicestamps]

I'm wondering if I should wait months between sale to reduce my money made per month/year?

You certainly would, but not for the reason you think.

When you are an "occasional seller" not only will you get lower visibility in Search, and lower sales due to lower feedback, which is a measure of trustworthiness for many buyers, but your customers' cleared payments will be held for up to 21 days against your customer's satisfaction.

The basic error in your thinking may be that it is easy to sell online.

If you have to pay a lot in fees, you are putting a lot more in your wallet.

If you are paying a lot of taxes on your income, you have a high income.

Those payouts are a sign of success!

Generally, try to put up several items every week, preferably at least one a day.

This means you are found in Search by customers using the default Best Match, those using Newly Listed and those using About to Close.

Every sale you make boosts you in Search, leading to more sales.

If you find you are making too much money.... which is doubtful.... you can just close down all your listings for 60 days by transferring them to your Unsold Items List and re-opening them, with  single click, when you want.